Obama To Appoint Jeanne Lambrew As Deputy Director Of White House Office Of Health Reform
Obama To Appoint Jeanne Lambrew As Deputy Director Of White House Office Of Health Reform
In just a few moments, President-elect Barack Obama will announce that another one of our friends and former colleagues, Jeanne Lambrew, will be named deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. In that position, she will work with HHS Secretary Tom Daschle to achieve “significant changes” in health care reform. Jeanne co-authored a book with Daschle entitled, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.”
Jeanne recently wrote, “Reforming the health system requires leadership and commitment that can come only from the White House.” In the Clinton administration, she helped lead the creation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Over on the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky takes a look at Jeanne’s philosophy on health care reform. Building on the two major existing sources of health coverage — the employer based system and Medicaid – Lambrew has advocated plans that allow Americans to keep their existing coverage, while offering affordable options to those who need them:
- Americans lacking job-based insurance, for instance, could purchase affordable coverage through a new national insurance pool that would offer “the same private health plans offered to federal employees and members of Congress.”
- While the plan does not include an employer mandate, “employers would have access to the Healthy America insurance pool.” Individuals offered coverage through an employer would be free to decline that coverage and enroll in a plan through the pool instead.
- The plan would simplify and extend Medicaid to cover all below a certain income level (for example, 100–150 percent of the federal poverty level).
While she was here at CAP, Jeanne also developed the idea of a Wellness Trust to “carve prevention out of health insurance and take responsibility for a new, outcomes-oriented system.” Writing on ThinkProgress, she explained:
The premise of the Wellness Trust is that disease prevention is more like homeland security than health insurance: everyone needs it, no one notices if it works, and it depends on persistent, strong leadership and systems. While change will come at a cost, this cost would be dwarfed by the lost lives, productivity, and public resources that will result from a failure to act.
The Wonk Room has more.
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16 Responses to “Obama To Appoint Jeanne Lambrew As Deputy Director Of White House Office Of Health Reform”
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Awesome. I'm glad to see some more progressives joining the Obama team.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:01 amNetizens discussing her position will have to refer to her as the DDoWHOoHR.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:02 amWonderful. It's refreshing to see progressives receive such critical positions in the White House. I'm confident that Obama's team will achieve reform in the health care system over a span of four years -- or at least establish a solid foundation for future advancements.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:05 amUm, did I miss where she discusses Universal Health Care?
(Goes back and reviews article, carefully)
Um, no I didn't miss anything there.
It's all about insurance.
Which is what's wrong with the current system to begin with.
Yeah,I'm excited...
December 11th, 2008 at 11:28 amSo instead of reforming the industry and putting bad (most) HMOs out of business, and equating health care as a right, Obama is putting another band-aid on a suppurating wound. Change you can believe in, but not get.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:32 am3rd party insurance 'brokers', insurance companies & the related predatory businesses surrounding them are the problem.
Why should health care dollars be 'funneled' through an insurance pipeline?
My health insurance is going up 26% Jan. 1st. Along with that, we'll see higher deductibles, lower prescription coverage and the non-formulary list growing to include well known, safe drugs.
Keep insurance predators out of healthcare!
December 11th, 2008 at 11:40 amBushie Says:
Change you can believe in, but not get.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:32 am
________
And it's a change that could actually happen, as opposed to a politically unfeasible universal health care system.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:41 amA friend to the people of America would not specify between the rich and poor, the have and have not.
Medical coverage should be free. It is the country's obligation to keep all of it's people well.
How absurd to consider such a compromise. Only your last paragraph addresses what is to come for the people during the coming depression, and that in an allusion to the future. An allusion admitting failure of purpose.
Am I on the right site?
December 11th, 2008 at 12:07 pmI suspect that in the end it will look more like universal health care than insurance.
I think the money will be mostly taken out of it although some will still be allowed to make some money they will not be running the system anymore as they have in the past.
Regulations will be put in place to keep them from gouging and denying........
It will be a change you can believe in.
As my pharmasist said....."We need socialized medicine but in this political enviornment, we can't call it that, we have to use a different word".
December 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pmAnd it’s a change that could actually happen, as opposed to a politically unfeasible universal health care system.
Real universal health care (i.e. a not-for-profit single-payer system) could actually happen, but only if we stick to our guns and don't compromise on half-assed measures that don't really solve the problem.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:11 pmHot Damn! Another BullsEye shot for the Obama Transition Team!
Gawd I love this!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pmI love the naive and misguided Uber-Progressives on this site who have bemoaned at Obama's cabinet picks and other appointments thus far. To disapprove of Obama NOW as not being Liberal ENOUGH is simply idiotic to any of us who listened to Obama's campaign. Far from emphasizing a "radical" Liberal agenda, Obama emphasized pragmatism and compromise as his weapons of choice when implementing change.
This means that measured steps must be taken to reach the goals he has set forth. Obama needs to re-direct emphasis on the delivery of health care and help de-claw the power of insurance companies. He can't reasonably expect to walk in and simply shut them out of the health care market - it just would not fly politically or practically.
It is so stupid of people to not recognize that Obama is navigating a minefield to reach the goals he has put forth. Sprinting across that minefield would most likely lead to death or dismemberment, while cautious a purposeful navigation may require a step sideways here or there.
After all that we have been through with an administration that did not even bother to hide its anti-American, pro-corporate ideology I am willing to give Obama some time to actually have the power to start implementing some of the things he wants to do before getting up in arms about it. That isn't giving him carte blanche either, but it also isn't throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:55 pm______
RUCerious Says:
Another BullsEye shot for the Obama Transition Team!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
______
Absolutely!
"As Tom put it in his farewell address to the Senate, “The politics of common ground will not be found on the far right or the far left. That’s not where most Americans live. We will only find it in the firm middle ground of common sense and shared values." I could not agree more.”
Barack Obama
December 11th, 2008 at 1:22 pmSo, this woman is for health care?
After 8 years of Bush appointments, this is going to take some getting used to.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pmUniversal Health Care is not a "far-left" issue, unless you wanna concede to the "far-left" the ground of equal justice, fairness, and compassion.
If you wanna do that, okay...we'll take 'em...
December 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pmIt seems the CAP is getting a lot of players into the game, and the bench is still 'deep'. I'm so pleased and encouraged.
December 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm